The Legend of the Werewolf (36 page)

Mike's breath hitched. He fought
to move his arms and legs but the shadows above him pressed his
body so strongly to the ground that he couldn’t move.

“Hadrian. Don’t hurt her.” The warlock
acted as though he hadn’t heard. “Hadrian!”

"If she is not my love then I have no
use for her."

"NO!" Mike screamed. Bill screamed with
him.

The orb glowed in his hand until the
light penetrated the cloth and burned it away, revealing a giant
pearl of light.

The moon above them flashed and lit up
the sky. The shadows shrieked and disappeared.

Freed, Mike scrambled up and rushed to
where Anne sat, dazed and confused. He threw his arms around her
and pulled her up. He wanted to throw her into one of the cottages
to hide, but he couldn't move her.

"Annie, let's go. It's not safe for you
here."

Her eyes were not on him, they were gazing
intently at something off to the side. "Look." Her voice was soft,
floating on air as she pointed to the log where she once
sat.

He turned his head and gaped.

A woman stood on it, surrounded by the
same pillar of light Mike had seen in his vision. Long white robes
hung loosely around her, though slim arms, a delicate neck, and a
heart shaped face hinted towards a shapely body under all the
layers. On top of her head sat a crown with a golden crescent moon
pointing upwards, like horns.

“Luna.” The name was whispered by every
pack member as they fell to their knees, a murmur that consumed
even the shadow soldiers.

She looked around the faces of the men and
women kneeling before her, eyes flashing towards the shadows
briefly, before she spotted Bill who was walking to her.

Her rose colored lips lifted in a smile
at the sight of him.

He stepped inside the light, stopped,
and fell on his knees. He reached his hand out to touch the fabric
of her dress, and was consumed by the same moonlight that drove
away all the shadows.

His body glowed like a diamond in
direct sunlight.

Mike had to turn his face away from the
light bulb glow but it penetrated his lids.

“Grandpa!” Annie called. Mike held her
tighter, sensing her fear.

When the light disappeared, Mike
blinked away the dots and turned to have a look at what
happened.

Another gasp, and more awed murmurs
floated around the pack. In Bill's place knelt a younger man,
bathrobe replaced with a tunic, hose, and leather boots. The color
in his shoulder length hair turned dark and rich. His skin youthful
and tight, no longer wrinkled with age.

He looked so much like Mike they could
have been twins.

Mike gasped, and the wolves of the pack
looked between each other, and at him, as though contemplating the
coincidence that they should have faces so similar.

Tears streaked down Bill’s cheeks like
rain on a window pane. "I have missed you dearly."

Mike expected Luna to remain perfectly
poised on her spot on the log, continuing to stare down at the man
who loved her with nothing more than the kind of affection given to
a pet bird.

Instead her knees collapsed, and she all
but fell on top of him. Her weight teetered Bill off his balance
and he fell on to his back with her in his arms,
laughing.

She wrapped her arms around his neck
and proceeded to plant kisses all along his face.

"Edward, Edward. I have missed thee."
Tears escaped her lashes and flowed down her pale cheeks. They were
not soft tears either. She sobbed brokenly against his chest,
shoulders shaking as Bill pet her hair and kissed her
neck.

Mike rocked back on his feet at the
sight. He had to look at Annie's face to make sure she still stood
with him.

There certainly was a resemblance. Hair,
eyes, even the shape of the nose. They could pass for relatives,
sisters’ maybe. Now that he could see them both at the same time,
Mike could definitely notice the differences.

Luna’s skin was paler, she was slimmer
too, and Annie’s face was more oval in shape.

Anne was still the sexier of the
two.

Hadrian seethed as he watched the
reunion. His body shaking as Bill explained how he could control
his curse, that she had no reason to fear he would attack
her.

"No ... no!"

He ran for the happily reunited couple,
his fists raised and red again. Bill jumped up and stood over Luna
to defend her, but it was Westley who knocked Hadrian on his
back.

“
Monster! Get off me!
Get off
me!
”

Westley's jaws snapped around Hadrian's
head again, the same way they had been back at his castle. Just as
before, Hadrian quieted down.

Westley’s yellow eyes gazed up at Mike,
as though waiting for his permission.

That man would never learn his lesson. He
would hunt Bill and Luna until the end of the world, using the
shadow soldiers he’d imprisoned to do it.

Mike nodded his head. Anne
closed her eyes and cringed at the snapping sound of bones that
followed. Mike forced himself to watch as Westley made
sure
Hadrian was
dead.

Members of the pack, whether they were
wolves or in their human form turned their faces to the sky and
howled. They continued to howl, taking breaths and howling some
more even after Westley turned up his nose at the mutilated body
and left it in the dirt.

He didn’t act in
self-defense, but
Westley was protecting the two people behind him. Mike would make
sure that part was known when it came time to answer
questions.

Bill held Luna in his arms, shielding
her from the sight of the wolf with the bloody muzzle, the same way
Mike was doing with Anne.

The glowing woman lifted her head
anyway.

The werewolves approached slowly and bowed
to her. She passed hertheir eyes over them with interest. "These
are your children?" sShe asked Bill.

The tails of all the wolves wagged at
the comment. Mike felt the glowing pride Anne emitted from the
comment.

"You could say that," Bill replied, his
eyes never leaving her face, as though afraid she would disappear
from sight. He wrapped his arms possessively around her waist. Luna
leaned into his embrace, resting her head against his
shoulder.

"Never leave me again," he
sighed.

She shook her head. "Never
again."

"Does this mean she'll stay on earth?"
Bud asked.

Mike hadn't thought of that. He, along
with every wolf in the pack, stared at the couple, awaiting their
answer. Some pairs of eyes were shining hopefully.

Luna shook her head. "I do not belong
here," she turned her face back to Bill, whose eyes were brimming
with tears, "but you are immortal now. Come with me."

Bill's eyes widened and he responded
without hesitating. "Yes, I'll go with you."

Even though it wasn’t the desired
outcome, the pack erupted in cheers as the pillar of light
brightened.

Mike knew they were about to lift
off.

So did Annie, who left his arms and ran
to them. He didn’t try to hold onto her this time.
“Wait!”

Bill looked over as she ran to
them.

“Who is this?” Luna asked, her voice
curious rather than malicious at the young woman who cried out to
her man.

Anne stopped a foot away from them. She
eyed Luna as though not certain how to proceed. “I’m … he’s my
…”

Bill smiled. “This is my
grandchild.”

It was strange hearing him say that now
that they looked about the same age.

Bill reached his arm out to Annie, and
hesitated for only a hair of a second before she flew to him,
hugging him tightly.

Deep respect continued to grow inside
of Mike as Luna accepted the answer without any hint of jealousy
towards Annie’s grandmother.

Bill had called her his grandchild, he
didn’t say Anne was adopted.

Annie held onto him tightly as he
stroked her hair and kissed her cheeks. “I love you. You’re my
little girl.”

She sniffed, but her tears didn’t stop.
“I know. I love you too.”

“
We will return,” Luna said
simply.

Mike stepped forward. He put his hands
on Annie’s shoulders and she looked at Luna with wide
eyes.

“
Remember? She can come to earth
every full moon,” Mike said into her ear. “You’ll see him
again.”

Annie blinked. He could sense her mind
clearing as she put it together. Then she launched herself to Luna,
hugging the glowing woman tightly.

Luna sputtered and stiffened, then her
face softened as she returned the gesture.

Annie pulled away from her, eyes still
shining. “Thank you.”

Luna graced her with a serene smile,
kissed her forehead, and took Bill’s hand.

Mike reached out and took Annie’s hand,
coaxing her away from the light as Bill and Luna lifted into the
air, floating towards the moon.

The wolves howled again as they turned
into little dots and disappeared in the distance, but Mike knew
that it wasn't from sadness. Tonight, they were going to
celebrate.

Anne softly cried beside him. He
wrapped his arm around her and gave her a gentle
squeeze.

When the light of the moon faded back
to normal and they were left only the light from the remaining
lamps as their guides, the shadows didn't return.

Mike had the feeling that if they truly
were the ghosts of Hadrian's servants, they could finally move on
to the other side now that he was gone.

And. just like how the shadows disappeared
in the moonlight, a crowd of people appeared from seemingly nowhere
once the moon returned to its normal glow.

Mike looked through the familiar faces of
the men who were supposed to come and help him, grinning at one in
particular. "Hey, Jason, you’re late!"

His partner turned up to look at the
sky, the men behind him looking amongst themselves in confusion.
“What the Hell just happened?”

EPILOGUE

A few weeks later.

"The moon looks a lot
brighter."

Mike studied the spotted circle from where
he lay on his back. Annie lay next to him in the grass, her hands
cradling her head. The position lifted her pink tee enough for him
to appreciate the flat peach colored stomach it
revealed.

He hadn’t been paying attention to the
sky. At her remark he gazed up, the moon, visible in the daylight,
just beyond the clouds, did have an ethereal shine to it. "I guess
it does."

Her navel held a wider appeal to him
though. He reached his hand out, fingers tickling around the little
circle.

She kept staring at the sky. "What do
you think they're doing right now?"

"Probably getting reacquainted with
each other." His hand stalled as he felt Anne's embarrassment spill
over her like warm water.

"That's not what I meant."

She shrugged, trying to hide the blush on
her face. "Well, it's probably true anyway." She went back to
looking at the moon, then reached over to play with one of the
daggers from her grandfather’s collection. She’d basically taken
ownership of them, and had started to show a real interest in
learning how to use them after what happened with Hadrian and not
being able to shift so she could defend herself the natural
way.

Considering she already had a
pretty hefty set of claws
and the shadow castle was no longer a problem,
Mike really hoped she wouldn’t start carrying any of them around
concealed in every day life. Using them against evil wizards was
one thing, carrying it around a Wall-Mart was probably not so
great.

Mike’s girlfriend was badass enough
without needing any weapons, thank you very much.

Anne eventually sighed. "I can't believe
he waited for her for a thousand years."

Mike frowned, and he sat up to look down
at her. "Why can't you believe it?"

"It just seems like a long time to me.
He was the first werewolf. Did bonding even exist back then? He
couldn't have done that while still human."

Mike nodded. "Or, the werewolf bonding
stemmed from how he bonded with her to begin with, despite that
fact."

Annie blinked. Then she blushed as she
looked away from the ancient dagger in her hand, and back up at the
moon. "I never thought of it like that."

Mike turned to lie on his side, resting
his head on his fist. "Would you wait a thousand years for me?" He
asked.

"We'll never have that problem," she
replied, setting the dagger aside before closing her eyes, as
though preparing for a nap in the sun.

Mike nodded. "You're right. I guess it
would be too long for me to wait too."